UNIVERSITY PLANNING EXTENSIVE RENOVATION

Southeast Missouri State University plans to renovate two of its four high-rise Towers dormitories in a move designed to completely change living space within the residence halls.

The $11 million project to be funded by issuance of bonds will mark the first major renovations of the Towers complex since its construction 25 years ago, university officials said Monday.

The university Board of Regents in a closed-door session last week at Poplar Bluff approved the project and plans for issuing bonds to finance it.

The board authorized Sverdrup Crop. of St. Louis to draw up architectural and engineering plans to remodel two of the residence halls in the Towers complex and approved Stifel, Nicolaus and Co. of St. Louis as the senior manager bond underwriter.

Plans call for the bonds to be issued by the end of January. The bonds would be retired over the next 25 years with dormitory fee revenue. No state money will be used, officials said.

"This will make the two Towers facilities showcases on campus and will address the needs of our current and future students," said Ken Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration at Southeast. "The renovations also will expand the life of these buildings."

SueAnn Strom, vice president for student affairs at Southeast, said plans call for elimination of communal bathrooms and conventional dorm rooms on each floor and developing suites with semi-private bathrooms.

"Lifestyles of students have changed significantly since 1967," said Strom. "They are used to more personal amenities. We are trying to address those needs."

Strom said, "One of the things we know about today's students is that typically many of them have come out of homes where they have had their own bedroom and often their own bathroom."

"Clearly, we know students are concerned about our existing facilities," said Strom. This project, she said, should address concerns about the lack of privacy and living space.

University officials are waiting on a recommendation from Sverdrup as to which two Towers dormitories to renovate.

Work will begin on one of the Towers halls at the close of the academic year in May. The residence hall will be shut down for 10 to 12 months during construction, Dobbins said.

Students normally living in the high-rise dorm will be housed in Southeast's other residence halls, including the other three Towers dormitories.

In May 1994, the first renovated building will reopen and one of the other Towers buildings will be closed for about a year for the same renovations.

"Everything should be finished by May 1995," he said.

The renovations are expected to cost $5.5 million per building.

Within three to five years after the two Towers buildings have been renovated, the university may look at the possibility of remodeling the other two high-rise dorms, Dobbins said.

The university, he said, could not generate sufficient dormitory revenue to allow for issuance of a larger bond issue now. "It will be a strain on the dormitory revenue system because we have to take one tower off line," he said.

The Towers complex is composed of four 12-story buildings. The complex houses 58 percent of the university's on-campus students.

Each tower can house 387 students. Under the new configuration, the two renovated residence halls will each house about 265 students.

Dobbins said the interiors of the two structures will be "totally gutted" in preparation for the major remodeling.

Each of the newly-renovated floors will provide housing for 21 to 23 students with semi-private bathrooms. The suites will be situated around the perimeter of each floor, opening onto a center area that will contain a "family-style" environment including a computer work area, mini-kitchen and laundry facilities adjacent to a student lounge.

Each room will have cable television hookups, its own air-conditioning and heating thermostat control, and a computer line to access the university's mainframe computer system, Dobbins said.

Each room will also have built-in desks, wardrobes and a chest of drawers.

"There will be a third more living space in each room in addition to adjoining semi-private bathrooms," he said.

Strom said the renovated buildings would allow for four students in the space now occupied by six. "We would be taking three of the current rooms and turning it into a four-person suite," she explained

"Our goal is to have better-quality space, more space, and then just really a different configuration," she said.

Strom said each floor would have approximately four four-person suites, three two- or three-person suites and a single-person room.

Renovations also will include new windows, ceilings and carpet, paint, upgrading of corridors and public spaces, electrical and safety code improvements and complete replacement of plumbing systems.

Improvements will also be made on the first floors of the two buildings to allow for better accessibility for handicapped persons, Dobbins said.

University officials had been studying the idea of renovating the residence halls for about six months. Dobbins said the university hired Sverdrup to assess the situation and make recommendations, at a maximum cost of $50,000.

"What we asked Sverdrup to do was to come in and evaluate all of our residence halls," he explained.

The firm reviewed each residence hall for interior, exterior, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire-protection and safety-code needs.

"We decided to zero-in on Towers now because they are in the best shape and represent over half of the dormitory system facility investment," he said. "Renovating those facilities is the most cost effective of the alternatives we considered and will provide improvements for the greatest number of students."

Dobbins said it was estimated minor renovations would have cost $3.3 million per Towers dormitory compared to $5.5 million for major renovations.

University officials elected to proceed with major renovations. "Our thinking was, we have enough money to do two and do them very well," said Dobbins.

"We had been thinking of the need to renovate the residence halls to make them more attractive to students. With the bond market right now at an all-time low, this seemed to be the best time to issue bonds and do some of the work," he said.